


Peter Parker's field trip to Stark Industries - Change is coming

by Sharonneke95



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Babbling Peter Parker, Because there are never enough of those, Canon Compliant, Field Trip, Fluff, Gen, No Beta, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, Peter is So Done with Flash, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Spider-Man: Far From Home (Movie), We die like..., and so am i, but that's a good thing, i'll shut up now, science geeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25005991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharonneke95/pseuds/Sharonneke95
Summary: When Peter Parker hears that there will be another field trip, he's not very enthusiastic. When he hears it's to Stark Industries even less so. His internship may be real after what happened with the Vulture, and his teachers may believe him now, but most of his classmates do not. And Peter is not sure he really wants them to
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Flash Thompson, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 56
Kudos: 1145
Collections: Identity Reveal x Field Trip, Peter Parker and his Embarassing Field Trips, The Best Peter Parker Field Trip Fics





	Peter Parker's field trip to Stark Industries - Change is coming

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!
> 
> So, yeah, I've decided to try my hands at a field trip fic as well. I've read so many already, but there are never enough, are there!? So here's my take. I hope I've been able to tell something new!

_“Rise and shine, Midtown Science and Technology. I’m Betty Brant.”_   
_“And I’m Jason Ionello.”_   
_“Before we move on to the important news bits of today, we’d like to remind all 10th grade students to gather in the auditorium during the lunch break for a big announcement.”_   
_“Yeah, it’ll probably be something boring again, like that time we had to sit through the lecture because you had taken-”_   
_“Yes, thank you, Jason…”_

—————

Peter closed his locker with a louder ‘bang!’ than he had been aiming for. The day had only just started and it was already turning out like one of the worst ones in a long time. First he pretty much slept through his alarm - thank the petty thief that decided to rob an old lady just as Peter was heading home to turn in for the night - and he was woken up by a still furious aunt May - thanks again to the previously mentioned thief and the fight he put up, making the Spiderling arrive minutes after his school night curfew, who had then decided to basically ground him for everything Spider-Man for the coming week. 

To be clear, he was very happy May knew now, it meant a lot of less lying. And she wasn’t worrying as much as he thought she would. Turned out she was already worrying over him being so absentminded and closed off from her when she didn’t know. Still, it also meant she could take away his patrolling privileges. Peter had tried complaining to Mr. Stark about it, but his mentor had been completely on May’s side, mumbling something about self-preservation and teenagers.

He then missed his train, so he wanted to swing over, only to remember aunt May had taken his web-shooters to be sure he wouldn’t use them for any Spider activities, so he had to jog all the way to school. That wouldn’t have been too bad - especially with how his physical condition had changed so positively ever since the spider bite; running was a lot easier if you didn’t need to worry about your breathing - if he didn’t still feel a little sore from the fight with the aforementioned thief. It didn’t really hurt, his enhanced healing ability made sure of that, but his body was sure to let him know it preferred him to be more careful next time.

He arrived at school just a few minutes too late, but it did have him end up in detention. His first period was Spanish, where the teacher had decided to give an unannounced test, so Peter was late for that test as well. Ned had thrown him a sympathetic smile, which Peter returned, but which didn’t do much for his general mood. By the time first period ended and Peter could finally head to his locker to gather all supplies he would need for the day, he figured that the only thing that could make his day any worse…

“Hey, Penis Parker!”

Peter sighed and turned around, bracing himself for some more humiliation. Flash stopped right in front of him, with such a smug smile it gave Peter goosebumps. 

“I know something you don’t,” the bully drawled. “And I’m already looking forward to seeing your face when you find out at lunch!”

Flash walked away, giving Peter no more information than that. Rolling his eyes, Peter pushed himself away from his locker, towards his AP Physics classroom. At least Flash wouldn’t be there and Ned would. And they were discussing the conservation of energy, which was especially interesting considering his upcoming project at Stark industries that would be involving Black Panther’s suit. 

After Mr. Stark’s ‘test’ about him becoming an Avenger, the genius billionaire had offered to give Peter an actual internship, with the paperwork for school and official credits and everything. It had been quite a hassle, legally speaking, and Tony often playfully asked himself out loud if it had been worth all the manual writing he’d had to do to fulfil all of principal Morita’s wishes to make sure the internship was legit. It entailed that Peter worked three afternoons per week at Stark Industries; two nights with Mr. Stark, which could mean either the man’s personal labs in the Stark Tower, that had been bought back after the moving fiasco with the Vulture, or in the even more futuristic labs at the Avengers’ compound upstate. The third night, usually the Wednesday, Peter spent at the Stark Tower, working together with the other interns on whatever project was available, or typing up the required reports. 

Peter liked all those afternoons, but the Friday evenings that they spend in the Avengers Compound usually ended with take-out food and movies with whoever of the remaining avengers was available. Most often, it ended up just being Mr. Stark and him, although Pepper sometimes joined. Colonel Rhodes sometimes stopped by, but he never stayed for the movie. Peter feared he had scared him off by being a little too enthusiastic about the man’s advanced leg braces. With Vision it was pretty much the other way around. The android fascinated him to bits, but the way he would fly through walls at the most unfortunate of times creeped Peter out. Vision’s thoughts seemed elsewhere as of late, though, making Peter feel as if he was intruding when asking questions about the A.I. or homework or other interesting things.

Unfortunately, today was Thursday, meaning no internship after school. May might have banned him from doing Spider-things, even she could not prevent him from working at Stark Industries. Peter guessed Mr. Stark himself would riot if she ever tried to do something like that. No, Peter would be heading straight home after detention, hoping that May would be lenient and allow him to be back on the streets by Monday.

The classes that concluded that morning left Peter feeling much better. Granted, Ned probably played a big role in that as well. Peter’s Guy in the Chair had been so enthusiastic about the announcement, guessing all throughout their chemistry practicum as to what it would be about. His theories went as far as them honouring Spider-Man’s rescue at the Washington Monument, even if that had been about half a year ago already. In their joined mathematics class, MJ even participated with her own far-fetched theories. By the time the trio walked into the auditorium during lunchtime, Peter had almost forgotten about his lousy morning. 

“If everyone could have a seat, that’d be great,” principal Morita tried. It took a moment for everyone to actually quiet down.

“Thank you,” the man continued. “As you know, we have an announcement to make. We have been offered something so amazing, it will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of you. Because of the exclusivity of this arrangement, we insist that everyone who will join, remembers that they have the name of our school to carry, that every misstep they make will reflect badly on all of their classmates and may have an effect on their future career.”

Everyone was quiet and the Peter could almost feel the tension pressing on his shoulders. But there was also dread, although he wasn’t sure what it stemmed from.

Principal Morita continued, oblivious to how uneasy his words had made the students. “There will be forms to sign by both you and your parents and you can be sure that every toe out of line will result in being excluded from this trip if we deem is necessary. Once again, this trip could make or break your future and we want to make sure they will remember us as pleasant guests, so we may return with future 10th graders. Well then, with all that out of the way. Let’s reveal this big announcement then, shall we, Mr. Cobwell?”

Their Chemistry teacher stepped forward. “Thank you, principal Morita. Let me cut right to the chase.” He said, in his no-nonsense manner of speaking. “We’re going on a field trip.”

That already had all of the students excited. Ned was basically jumping in his chair and even MJ looked interested. Still, Peter couldn’t shed the feeling that something bad was about to happen. His eyes roamed the space, but he couldn’t discover anything out of the ordinary. The only thing that confirmed his bad feeling was the annoying smirk that Flash sent him. Well, that and his bad track-record regarding field trips, of course.

Mr. Cobwell raised his hand, his not so subtle way of letting them know there was more, but he wouldn’t divulge until everyone was quiet once more. “The field trip will be… to Stark Industries.”

—————

“But May, I’ve been there so often! What would be the value of me going there again?”

May looked at her nephew. “You will probably see things from a perspective you haven’t seen before.”

“But if Mr. Stark finds out, he’ll probably embarrass me in front of my whole year!” Peter knew he was losing the fight, but he was stubborn enough to keep trying. “Besides, apart from the principal, still no one believes I actually have an internship.”

That had May give him a pitying look. “Then this is the opportunity to show them wrong, isn’t it? Plus, I’ve read over the general content and possible activities of the trip. Are you seriously telling me you want to skip out on those? And I doubt Ned would be all too pleased with you skipping out on him.”

Peter fell into the kitchen chair that he had abandoned in favour of some pacing and sighed. “I know… I just… I think I’m just scared of what everyone will think once they find out it’s real. I mean, it’s always just been Ned and me. And MJ. Everyone always says I claim to have this internship to be more popular, but I don’t want to be that. I don’t want anything to change.”

May put her hand over his and squeezed softly. “I know. But nothing has to change if you don’t let it. Sure, people might try to get your attention at first, but even your internship will get boring after a little while.” She grabbed a pen and looked at him again. He gave her his best puppy-eyes, but she wouldn’t budge. “You know that I’m right.” With that, she signed the paper.

—————

The field trip would take place about a month after the announcement. Because of the size of the group, both Midtown as well as Stark Industries needed enough time for all the paperwork. Only a week had passed before all 10th grade students were once again expected to attend a meeting at the auditorium. Everyone was supposed to have handed in all signed forms, both signed by themselves as well as their parents, by that morning but there had still been a few students who had been late or who had forgotten. All of them had gotten a severe scolding session by ms. Warren, who had been assigned to take care of all the paperwork. It was also her who was now standing in front of the big group.

“Thank you for your attention. As you all know, we will be going on a field trip to Start Industries in three weeks. You should all have read the rules and forms by now, but because I know you kids, I’d like to go over the basics once more. 

“We’ll be heading there by school bus. Once we arrive, we will be given security badges which we will have to wear at all times. Which includes bathroom breaks. We will be divided into several groups, depending on the classes you have chosen to follow. Stark Industries has offered to give each group a somewhat personalised tour, meaning that the focus per group might be very different. Everyone will follow the general tour, but depending on the group, the explanations and activities you will hear and do will be targeted towards your interests. It’s nothing you have to worry about, though, us teachers will make sure everyone is assigned to the applicable groups. We will let you know which group that is later. We only wanted you to know how seriously the company is taking this trip and expect a similar level of seriousness and effort from all of you.”

Peter zoned out after that. The rest of the talk was more of the general rules that they had to follow. Not touching anything, no wandering off. Weirdly enough, Mr. Harrington gave Peter a warning look when that last rule was being mentioned. Flash threw him some looks, too, but Peter ignored him. Like May had said, he’d prove them all wrong.

—————

A week before the trip the groups were announced. Peter was happy to see he and Ned were in the same group, but he felt conflicted about Flash being there as well. MJ had been assigned to one of the more HR-focused groups, as they had already expected when ms. Warren mentioned the groups would be assigned based on their chosen curriculum. 

It was difficult for Peter not to be just as hyped up for the trip as his classmates, although Flash really went out of his way to tell him off every single day.

“Well, Penis, are you ready to be exposed?”

“What do you think Tony will say when he finds out about all your lies?”

“I’m sure he’ll call in sick. Aren’t you, Penis?”

Peter tried to ignore it all and to not let the bully ruin his mood, but it sure wasn’t easy. He had hoped Flash would stop once their classmates stopped laughing at the constant repetition of jokes, but it took Mr. Wilson warning Flash with an exclusion from the trip for the nagging to be turned down a notch. 

That left Peter with nothing but excitement. He had tried to hear Mr. Stark out on some of the yet unrevealed activities that they would do, but the man stayed uncharacteristically tight-lipped about it all. When Peter all but begged his mentor not to embarrass him, Tony had only laughed. The spiderling had even tried with Pepper, to see if she could make Tony behave, but she had given him a look that told him it was a lost cause. But even the idea of Mr. Stark embarrassing him could not dampen his mood.

—————

On the day of the field trip, Peter was so restless, he woke up well before his alarm. He had plenty of time to eat breakfast and couldn’t remember the last time he could walk to the train station at such a relaxed pace. Once they arrived at school, and Ned had greeted him with their secret handshake, the groups were all checked by their respective teachers, making sure that everyone was there, before boarding the buses that would bring them to what was known as the Stark Tower. 

Once they arrived there and got off the bus, Peter had to mentally correct himself for almost walking towards the employee entrance, instead of the general entrance where visitors were expected to sign up. That entrance hall was big and imposing, surely to leave a great impression on anyone who would walk in. There were security guards at the door and visible cameras hanging from the ceiling, discouraging people with bad intentions to follow through. Peter knew that the biggest security asset was Friday, with her invisible eyes and ears pretty much everywhere in the building. 

The group of students was halted before a large row of scan-operated entrance gates. The attending teachers then all fell into that ordered chaos that only teachers and parents seem to have mastered, if even, to gather all the badges for each respective group. Ms. Warren, who would be staying with Ned’s and Peter’s group, started handing out the badges. Peter grabbed his out of his bag and he poked Ned to do the same. Flash was watching them closely. 

“Where did you get those? Did you steal them and then hack into them?”

Peter sighed and showed Flash his badge. “No. My picture is even on it. It’s my badge. That I need for my internship.”

But Flash shook his head. “No, that’s fake.” He then turned to ms. Warren. “Miss, Peter didn’t receive a badge from you, yet he is wearing one.”

Ms. Warren walked towards them, looking at the paper in her hand. “It says here Peter and Ned already have a badge. Mr. Leeds, do you have your badge as well?”

Ned proudly showed her his badge. The teacher nodded before turning to Flash. “That’s all sorted out. Mr. Thompson, you’re still not wearing your badge. Don’t make me tell you again to pin it on.”

Flash shot Peter one of his near-murderous looks before pinning the badge onto his shirt and walking away. Ned and Peter looked at one another, but before they could comment, a Stark Industries employee had neared their group and started talking. 

“Welcome to Stark Industries, or S.I. as we tend to call it. My name is Katie and I’ll be your guide for today. We will be starting with the more general tour, which will take until lunch. After lunch, we will do most of our group-specific activities, before all the groups will join together for a very special surprise! We may run into other groups on our way, but we require you to stay with this group all the time, except for lunch. All your badges have been linked to mine, meaning that you cannot pass any door without me being there. The only doors your badges are able to open are those of the toilets, but please let either your teacher or me know when you need a bathroom break, before we move on and lose you in one of the many corridors.”

Some of the groups were already walking through the gates, heading towards the many elevators that were waiting. Katie noticed the longing glances. “We will first go over the basics before leaving, while they will first take the elevator and then do the same explanation. There are more groups that elevators available today, so we needed to split up during the first talk already. By the way, please feel free to ask questions whenever you have them. We don’t want those fleeting thoughts to be lost along the way of you paying attention to my stories.

“Anyway, we were talking about the badges. You may find it interesting that most badges you will see look exactly the same. Some companies work with visible categories so people can easily see who belongs where. Here at Stark Industries, we’d rather not think in such categories. Those often lead people to believe that certain categories are more important than others and that’s simply not true. This company would not run as good as it does if any of the groups would not be here. It’s like a machine; you need all the screws and bolts to be in the right place for something to work as well as intended. With only the complicated pieces, it would still fall apart. Also, S.I. believes in cross-curricular work, encouraging employees from one department to work closely together with other departments. 

“But of course, not everyone is allowed to go everywhere. Every badge has a specific set of doors that they may unlock, depending on your department or project. If you want to engage in one of those cross-curricular projects, you can always request access to other places and rooms. If your request is deemed valid, the rooms will be added to your card, for as long as the project runs. 

“The only cards that are visually different, are those from people who work in security, since they need to be able to identify themselves as such, and press. You can recognise press by their so-called ‘level zero’ cards.”

Katie looked towards the elevators. “Are there any questions about this?”

Flash spoke without even raising his hand. “What about intern badges? Do they look the same?” He shot a smug look at Peter, who rolled his eyes at Ned in turn. 

“Uh, yes. Like I said, our badges don’t divide us into certain categories.” Katie said, dismissively. “Any other questions?”

Franklin’s hand shot up. “Do Avengers come here? Do they also have a card like this?”

Katie smiled. “They used to, back when this was the Avengers’ tower. I believe the A.I. system J.A.R.V.I.S, now replaced by F.R.I.D.A.Y., would let them in regardless of whether they were wearing a badge or not, based on biometric scans.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Franklin, so Katie continued. “It seems the elevators are slowly coming back down. Time to get started!” She then led the group towards the gates. “You don’t need to take off your badge. F.R.I.D.A.Y. will be able to scan it as soon as you’re close enough.”

And sure enough, the gates opened themselves up, giving bleeps and green lights as the students crossed the barrier. Peter had never been as happy for the generic badges. He’d rather not everyone see that his level of access was way beyond what an average intern would be expected to have. 

Once their entire group had passed through and were waiting for one of the big elevators to come back down, Katie talked some more about rules they had to adhere to. As soon as they stepped into the elevator, Peter zoned out. He had made sure to read over all the rules as they had been distributed among the students and most of those rules were either obvious or counting even for him as an intern. Basic lab safety, blah blah, no photographs unless stated otherwise, yada yada. It was only when F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced that they had reached the third floor that Peter actually paid attention to where they were going. 

“We will now enter the Stark Industries Museum. This section of the tower can actually be visited by people who are not employed or on a tour, which is why there is extra security and another set of gates here. They work exactly the same as the ones downstairs.” Katie went on to explain a little more about the museum and what to expect.

Ned elbowed Peter. “Dude, you never told me I could just come and visit the museum!”

Peter gave him an odd look. “You do realise that with your badge you can literally come here every time? Without having to pay the entrance fee? Besides, I’ve never even been here either.” At the unbelieving look Ned gave him, he added: “Which would you pick between checking out a museum and working on one of the projects in the labs?”

“Fair enough,” was Ned’s response. 

The group walked through the gates and into the main hall of the museum. Katie led them straight to the beginning. She talked about Howard Stark and his contributions to the Super Soldier program that created Captain America as he was known now, his efforts to help create S.H.I.E.L.D., and some of his most important other discoveries, like the Arc Reactor. She talked about the early years of Stark Industries, of it being more of a weapons and armour manufacturer, with which it mostly helped the United States Armed Forces, than the great pioneer in innovative technologies it would become later under Tony’s watch. They quickly touched upon the creation of the first Iron Man suit, something Peter knew Mr. Stark never really liked to talk about it, before entering a giant room filled to the brink with some of the newest or most inventive technologies created at S.I. Peter had known there was a certain gallery for the best of the best projects - the interns sometimes talked about which new inventions would end up there and whether their own project had potential to be showcased among the rest - but he hadn’t seen it before. He hadn’t anticipated that it would be this impressive either. 

Katie let them free to explore the room at their own pace, the signs with each item being clear enough not to require any additional information from her. Ned stuck closely to Peter’s side, asking him questions along the way like: “What does that do?” and “Do you know the person who made that?” and “Have you worked on that?” Peter had to answer no to pretty much everything, a lot of the items dating from well before he had started his official internship at S.I. It wasn’t until they reached the section with the most recent additions that Peer noticed some familiar devices. Some he had only heard about or seen at a general demonstration, but there were a couple that had actually been build with the help of one of the interns. 

There was one device in particular that drew his attention though. It wasn’t anything special on its own, it was a little voice-activated robot that could grab coffee and other items from the vending machine, but it was something the interns had made together, without any help from their supervisors and without it leading to any credit or fame. It had been just for fun. And now it was right there, on the shelf, with the name of every intern that had helped create it under the tag line of ' **The best creations are those that form under a shared experience** ’. Before Ned could have spotted his name among the many and could’ve made a way too loud comment about it, Katie called them to continue the trip.

“This next section has just been renewed to hold even more items and information. As you will see, that means the name isn’t 100% correct anymore, but who cares for those kinds of technicalities, right? Welcome to…” Katie spun around, her arm wide in a dramatic revealing manner. “The Avengers museum!”

Everyone’s mouth fell open. The room was very high and light, and the stalls were open to maintain that aesthetic. They were spread around, in quite the intricate pattern, but left a big empty circle in the middle, around the Avengers-emblem on the floor. There were stalls that were obviously dedicated to the members of the superhero group, even those who could no longer be called Avengers, other stalls were about certain battles or even objects if the object had been important enough. But Peter’s eyes were drawn to something completely different.

“Dude…” Ned whispered. He then elbowed Peter and whispered again. “Dude!” 

One of the closest stalls held none other than his old ‘onesie’, as Mr. Stark had called it. As he walked towards it, he could vaguely hear Katie’s enthusiastic explanation. “Technically, Spider-Man is no avenger. He was offered to become a member, but turned the offer down. I’m not completely sure what the superhero status of the Black Panther is. And of course, I’m not even sure we’re officially still allowed to call the other ones superheroes or Avengers, but they have played such a big role in keeping the planet safe, that Mr. Stark found that their places here had been rightfully earned. They are part of a history that needs to be told.”

His old kinda-suit had been cleaned. The stains that Peter couldn’t get out of the suit, no matter how hard he tried to clean it, had disappeared. It looked pretty odd, seeing those clothes on a mannequin, the way it was.

Peter didn’t have too long to take everything in before being interrupted by a shove and a drawl. “What’s up, Penis? You’re drooling over your friend’s exhibition. Guess this is the closest you’ve ever been to his suit.” Flash then turned to one of his companions. “Can you imagine he was wearing that? Nothing like the fancy suits the other ones wear.” The admiration in his voice sparked some confusion in Peter’s mind. 

Peter got up and went to stand next to Ned, who pointed at a sign from the Spider-Man exhibition. It said ‘Did you know’ in a bold, quirky font with four bullet points under that. 

  * Spider-Man got his powers through a bite from an enhanced spider. Among other spider-like abilities and senses, it made him more sensitive to strong smells, like peppermint.
  * Spider-Man shoots his webs via so-called webshooters he built himself. He also created tracers that were near undetectable to most Stark security systems. He ended up using these tracers to get a scare out of Iron Man.
  * Spider-Man single-handedly fought and captured the Vulture, preventing a lot of sensitive Stark material to be stolen. This act ultimately led to the decision not to sell the Stark Tower.
  * In contrast to the beliefs of some people, Spider-Man is completely non-venomous.



Ned, who really could not contain his enthusiasm, had read the facts out loud. 

Unfortunately for Peter, Flash was still there to hear all of it. “He must be really smart, too. You hear that, Parker? He’d be way too smart for you.”

Peter once again rolled his eyes, before dragging Ned to the next stall. Ned gave him a pitying look but Peter shook his head. It was okay. He was okay. It was pretty funny imagining how Flash would respond if he would ever find out. He whispered as much to Ned and they giggled before moving on to check out all the awesome stuff Mr. Stark had gathered for the public eye to see. Of course, Peter provided Ned with some more behind-the-scenes information wherever he could.

—————

When Katie led them back to the elevator, after letting everyone explore the Avengers museum a little more, Flash sided up with Peter. Apparently, his conversation with Katie hadn’t done much to waver his beliefs. “And, Penis? Taking it all in? This will be your first and last time in the tower, you know that as well as I do.”

Ms. Warren threw Flash something that held the middle between a wary and a warning glance that shut him up even more quickly that MJ would have been able to. Peter sighed, glad that the teachers knew better and that was of course what mattered. It didn’t make it all too much easier to take, though. And Ned, of course, who was now bouncing up and down from excitement. It was hard to not get infected by it, especially seeing as how that was exactly how Peter had felt back when it was his first day of the internship. He had babbled the whole elevator ride to F.R.I.D.A.Y., who had seemed oddly amused by it for an A.I.

It was the same A.I. that now announced they had reached the 31st floor. That definitely got Peter out of his musings. The 31st floor was…

“The intern hall. A lot of the interns have specific divisions, departments, or projects they work on, together with the regular S.I. employees, but they are welcome to work on this floor whenever they need or want to. An intern is allowed to come here at any time or day in the week, to work on their project, other schoolwork or to hang around with other interns. Most supervisors tend to encourage their students to work here every once in a while. The group of interns that works here overall tends to draw together quite well, so hanging out here usually works wonders for establishing your network. As you may imagine, we don’t allow just any student to become an intern here.”

That earned Peter an elbow from Flash. “Meaning there’s just no chance they would pick you.” The hissed taunt went unnoticed by the other people present in the room. The raised hand that followed not so much. “Miss Katie? Could you please tell us some more about what would be necessary to even be considered for an internship here at Stark Industries?”

That caught Katie, who was in the middle of a sentence further explaining what could be found on this floor, a little off guard, but she quickly recovered. “Well, there are a lot of variables that need to be considered there. One of them is your GPA. Of course, many geniuses didn’t fare too well on schools with standardised tests, so there are also other things that can be considered. If you apply with a project that is considered inventive enough and fits the brand-”

“Yeah, sure,” Flash waved his hand dismissively. “And what about age? Could I, as a high schooler, apply or would that be wasted energy?”

Katie blinked once… Twice… “Well, interns tend to be college students overall-”

“Hah! See, Parker!? No way you could be interning here. Busted!”

“Did someone say Parker? As in Peter Parker?” That voice belonged to the young man in a lab coat that approached quickly. His eyes lit up as he spotted the teen in question. “Pete! Is it not Wednesday today though, is it? Anyhow, can you please come help me out? The formula we worked out seems too unstable. I think I miscalculated the ratio of hydroxide to chloride to achieve the optimal curve. I could use your steady hand to insert the missing substance. If I ask Hannah she’s only going to help after she’s done laughing. And I’m afraid it might blow up.”

Peter looked at the intern, sure that Mike was overexaggerating with the blowing up part, but as he looked to ms. Warren for permission, her somewhat panicked wave for him to go made him realise it had been a master move. Mike was extremely good at phrasing his requests in such a way that someone who wouldn’t be completely involved in the project would automatically assume his request was the best way of action. Ever since the actual blow up when they were trying to figure out other applications for the tech behind the Black Panther suit, Peter made sure to keep asking questions until he actually felt knowledgeable enough to make an informed decision. 

He pointedly ignored Flash’s “What!?” as he turned to Ned. “I’ll see you in a bit.” 

Ned nodded very quickly, a smile plastered on his face. The rest of their class mumbled a little amongst themselves, while Katie looked at Peter with an odd look. “So that’s what those odd interning questions were about. You’re that the boss’ intern. That explains a lot.”

Peter shrugged, but was pulled away by Mike before he could answer vocally. 

While his class was shown around the intern labs and working stations, Peter helped out Mike with his renewed battery problem, talked to Hannah about the apartment she moved into a few days earlier and joked a little with Kishi while lending a hand to soldier the wires onto the new intern’s circuit board. As he rejoined his classmates, Katie looked at him expectantly. “Well, Mr. Parker, we still have some time left. How about you show us what you’ve been working on lately?”

Peter swallowed and he felt his face heat up. “I uh… That’s…” But F.R.I.D.A.Y. came to the rescue. “That information is classified.”

Some of his classmates jumped at hearing the voice so unexpectedly, but Katie only frowned at the ceiling. “Okay… But I’m sure you must have something you can show to us?”

Peter thought for a moment, before his face lit up. “Oh, yes! I do!” He then ran off, emerging just a moment later with a box in his hand. “Did you guys see the little robot in the museum? The one that was created as a collaboration project by the interns?” He scrambled in the box for a bit, before pulling out a cat-sized, six-legged robot. “May I introduce you to Intern-made Robot Exceeding Nerdy Expectations 2.0, or I.R.E.N.E. for short? Yeah, the name is still in progress. See as you might have read in the museum - or not, because there wasn’t too much time and the text that Mr. Stark placed by it is way too long to really catch anyone’s eye, but I’ll tell him that. Anyways, it said that the robot downstairs could grab coffee and things from the vending machine, right? But we wanted this one to do more than go to a static location and take whatever we had entered. So we are now trying to get facial recognition working so we could send each other things like messages or tools, but it doesn’t work very optimal yet, as it keeps bugging everyone until it can get a proper face scan and in doing so she tends to not care what she’s standing on. She may have caused a tiny little fire in east side of the labs?” Peter fell a little still, a hand going to his neck in an embarrassed move. What was he rambling on for? “Uh… Ned also helped out on it! He helped to program the facial recognition software.”

His classmates were quiet for a moment, before they all launched questions simultaneously. Katie and ms. Warren had to work together to get the students calmed down enough for the questions to be understandable.

“What voice recognition strategy did you use?”  
“What projects have you helped with?”  
“Do you also work on Avengers’ gear?”  
“How often does Ned help out here?”  
“How did you counterbalance the turtle effect when I.R.E.N.E. falls over?”  
“Have you actually met the Avengers?”  
“How did you become an intern?”

Peter and Ned answered them as well as they could, only getting interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. for classified information issues twice, before Katie announced that they really had to go to the lunch hall if they wanted to have enough time to get and eat their food. On the short elevator ride down, the students were still asking questions, but now they mostly were about the building and what Peter’s favourite places in it were. Peter thought a little about that last question before answering: “I think I like Mr. Stark’s lab at the Avenger compound most. It’s way more advanced and spacious there, and we’re less likely to be interrupted.” He conveniently didn’t add that most interruptions only came from Pepper or Bruce, telling them that it was time for dinner or sleep, or from Shuri calling.

As F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced their arrival at the 25th floor, Peter took hold on Ned’s arm and sped out, not even waiting for Katie’s introduction. He figured she’d understand. Peter navigated the two of them towards what he knew would be the busiest part of the big space, hoping that everyone looking at them would lose them in the sea of people. When he finally thought they were safe, he let go of Ned. 

“Sorry, I just really needed to get away from that.” He sighed and groaned. “This is why I didn’t want to come!”

Ned gawked at him. “Dude! Are you serious about that? You’ve never been so popular! We’ve never been so popular. And they don’t even know… You know. The biggest thing.”

That earned him a quick shush. “Ned! 

“Come on. As your guy-in-the-chair, I tell you to not worry so much. I’ve got your back if you need.”

Peter deflated at that, knowing there was nothing he could do anyways. “Yeah. Well, let’s go eat. I’m hungry.”

A few minutes later, Ned and Peter had both chosen something to eat. With their trays filled up - in Peter’s case more like overloaded - they went to search for a place to sit. 

“Hey losers. I think there are some empty seats in the back. You wanna check it out?”

The boys turned around to see MJ with a tray of her own, gesturing towards the far end of the section that they were at. As they took a seat, Michelle recounted some of the conversations she had had with the departments of ethics and humanities, having found people who were just as appalled by the policy S.I. had held up until a year or ten ago and making sure that S.I. improved to being a more humanitarian organisation every day.

“They said that ever since Stark cut the weapons division, the company has been blooming and growing to be even more inventive. That poses a whole other set of dangers, especially in the automaton department, but they seem to have quite the proper tests in place. They even have a more advanced version of the Turing test and F.R.I.D.A.Y. helps them monitor inventions that are being done all over this building. I asked them how they could be sure that F.R.I.D.A.Y. wouldn’t withhold certain information for her own gain, and turns out they have protocols for that, too.”

While Ned and Peter usually weren’t as interested in that side of technology, they found it fascinating to see the usually so reserved Michelle talk in a, for her, very enthusiastic way. Peter was glad that MJ’s opinion towards Stark Industries was rather positive. He knew that she and Pepper would get along perfectly and he really hoped he could introduce them one day. Though he figured that would require him to tell her the truth and he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready to do that.

In turn, Ned told her bits of what they had seen so far, though he focused mostly on the class finally seeing the truth about Peter’s internship.

“Is that why you look so gloomy, idiot? You haven’t said a word since we sat down.”

Peter shrugged, but didn’t look at her. She rolled her eyes at him. “Just take the win. It’ll all be considered normal before you know it. And Flash not picking on you will be a great relief.”

He of course knew she was right, so he dropped it as best as he could. “What’s on your program for the afternoon?”

“I believe pretty much what you have done this morning. Some general S.I. stuff. And then of course that special treat, as our guide has been referring to it. He also said everyone would be there, so I guess I’ll see you then.” Michelle got up with that, walking towards a guy somewhere in his mid-twenties, that Peter assumed was the guide from MJ’s group.

He looked at Ned. “I guess we’ll have to go and find Katie as well. I completely missed when she expected us to be ready and where to meet up.”

They put away their now empty plates and found their tour group with surprising ease, waiting in the entry hall near the elevators.

“Ah, Mr. Leeds and Mr. Parker, I guess we’re only missing those on toilet break then.” Ms. Warren looked up to see some students head in their direction. “Ah, ms. Sanchez and ms. Jenkins, there you are. If we’re all complete, then we can move on.”

It was very clear their classmates wanted to ask more questions, but Katie quickly told them that they would have plenty of time to ask Peter more questions later, when they weren’t in the middle of their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain insight into one of the biggest scientific corporations the world knew right now. As everyone filed out of the elevator, the guide made sure to end up right next to the spiderling.

“Did they not know you had an internship here? I’m sorry if it was something they weren’t supposed to know, but they were sure to find out by you coming here.”

Peter shrugged. “More like they didn’t believe it.” At her apologetic look, he continues. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll probably be distracting them with more interesting things.”

Everyone was led into something resembling a tiny lecture hall. Peter and Ned noticed there was a familiar face standing in front of the room. Ned even went so far as to give a quick wave, which was quickly returned after the head of the IT intern department recognised him. He started talking as soon as all the students had settled down. 

“Welcome everyone. I’ve been asked to tell you a little about the IT bits that we do here at Stark industries. If my information is correct, you all have quite a bit of a background in programming, so I’ll skip most of the basics and will just dive into some of the projects that we are working on and what our vision of the near future is, in terms of programming projects.”

After quite the interesting half an hour - no matter that most of the subject was dry enough to make ms. Warren yawn, it was very interesting when you actually understood the material - the group was disappointed to find that they were supposed to go to the next part. They were ushered into what seemed to be very informal labs, with very colourful lab coats. They were given a tour around said labs by a young woman whose name Peter had forgotten, but he knew she was in her third year of her chemistry-based PhD. Her bright yellow lab coat had stains of all the other colours of the rainbow. Perhaps that was what had distracted Peter from remembering her name. She definitely remembered him though, calling his name as soon as she spotted him.

Miss Rainbow, or Yoni as she introduced herself to the class as, showed some really amazing and mind-blowing techniques, that up until that point most of the students hadn’t done anything but read about in textbooks or online articles. Peter puffed his chest a little when she asked him to help her out with one of the demonstrations. Not even having to don one of the stained visitor’s lab coats with an Iron Man pattern could take that win from him. He couldn’t help but look at Flash as he put on his protective glasses, wishing MJ was there with her ‘people in distress’ sketchbook to capture the moment forever.

The half-hour after that was spent with the board of ethics, which everyone believed to be boring, but soon turned out to give them a lot of food for thought. They discussed both the benefits as well as the dangers of the Internet of Things, how far people should allow monitoring before they considered it a breach of privacy and how to make such monitoring secure. They were just diving into what kind of restrictions an A.I. like F.R.I.D.A.Y. should have when Katie called that their time was up.

What followed were a theory-focused half-hour with the physics research and information department and a more hands-on half-hour with the engineering department, where some of them were even allowed to lend a hand in the creation of some Stark prototype 3D printing machine. 

That led them to the last half-hour of their tour, before they would get to the grand surprise. By now, Katie couldn’t help the big smile she had on her face every time she mentioned it and frankly, Peter was both curious as well as anxious to see what that was about. It felt so unlike Mr. Stark that he had not yet made contact with Peter, in any way. In the very least, Peter had expected some comment from F.R.I.D.A.Y. That’s why, when Katie walked towards him during the explanation of the robotics task the group would be taking part in, he was not in the very least surprised that her request was for him to follow her out. Even less of a surprise was when she sent him off to one of the bigger publicity rooms where he found a very excited Mr. Stark upon entering.

Peter couldn’t help the fond smile.“I knew you would show up eventually. You really went all out with this tour, didn’t you, Mr Stark?”

The man in question looked at him with his signature smirk. “Everything for my favourite intern.”

“Technically, I’m your only intern. The other interns are under ms. Potts authority.”

“Yeah, yeah, genius, can’t you just take the compliment? Anyhow, you better get ready for your moment to shine.”

Peter’s stomach dropped. “What do you mean?”

“Your aunt mentioned that there were still some unbelievers in your class and that you weren’t sure you wanted to come today because of that. Plus we both know you’d never flaunt your talents. So instead, I’m going to do all the flaunting for you. But you need to be presentable for that and you’re honestly looking a little pale, kiddo. So let's get next-door so they can do something about that horrible complexion of yours. Seriously, underoos, do you ever get outside without the mask on? You need to catch some more vitamin D.”

The fact that Mr. Stark kept the conversation going while steering him to the door that would lead back-stage was very comforting. Peter knew that his mentor still didn’t like the public sides that came to the job, both as an inventor as well as an Avenger. Peter even dared to say that out of the two of them, the older man was the most nervous right now. But that was also because Peter still had no idea what Mr. Stark’s plan was exactly. 

Upon asking, he got: “Oh, you know. A Q and A with representatives from the important departments, me, and your school. And you’ll be there as the intern.”

Peter froze mid-step. “You mean, in front of the whole year? Like, everyone will be watching me?”

Tony turned around from where he had noticed the spiderling’s hesitation a step later than when it had actually happened. “Uh huh. And you’ll be answering any questions they have regarding interning. And whatever else they want to know from you. Well, as long as it doesn’t implicate you go on… Red and blue adventures. Or discusses classified stuff.” Mr. Stark thought for a moment. “You know what? We’ll figure that out as we go. Don’t worry, kid. It’s going to be just fine.”

—————

Some twenty minutes later, Peter stood next to Mr. Stark, back-stage and waiting for the signal that everyone was seated and they were ready to start. He had been powdered and his hair had been brushed and he felt all dressed up even without a wardrobe change. Not that Mr. Stark hadn’t tried. 

The man now turned towards him, arms spread out. “How do I look?”

“Dashing as ever, Mr. Stark. As if you’ve done this a hundred times before,” he joked, his voice a little unsteady because of the nerves. “What about me?”

Mr. Stark corrected some strand of hair that had once again managed to get out of line. “Like a deer caught in headlights. Relax, kid. You need to enjoy this moment. You’ll do just fine and if you start blabbering or fall still, we’ll help you out. Careful though, if you do too well, I might add this to your list of chores.” 

Peter’s response held the middle between a nervous giggle and a genuine laugh, and then the doors opened. Peter knew that they had come with many to the tower, but seeing everyone sitting in a half-round stadium-like setting felt unreal. He tried to not gawk around, in fear of looking like he was there for the first time. Granted, it was his very first time in the room, but none of the others seemed impressed by it, so he tried to act the same.

He took the seat that Tony motioned him to get into, with his mentor taking place in the seat besides it. Nearly all the student had started clapping, but from where he sat he could see Ned and MJ giving each other a look as they spotted him. Ned started to motion extravagantly, as if Peter otherwise wouldn’t be able to notice him. Peter gave him a quick wave and then the noise died down.

It took him a moment to spot, even with his enhanced sight, but Flash looked as incredulous as ever. The muscles in his forehead couldn’t have been drawn much tighter and his bottom lip almost hit the ground. That helped calm Peter’s nerves more than words could ever have. After this there was no more denying his internship, and possibly no more bullying. He’d have to make sure Flash wouldn’t take it out on anyone else either, but he knew that standing up for other people was something he could actually do. And perhaps having the whole school know that he hadn’t been lying this whole time - even if he had at first, but who had to know that? - would make it easier to stand up for people as Peter Parker instead of as Spider-Man as well.

Mr. Stark started talking, introducing everyone present. Peter smiled and waved as Mr. Stark called his name. That sparked some rumours, as apparently not yet everyone had recognised Peter, but Mr. Stark quieted them down easily by continuing the round of introductions. He then went on to set a light mood, in the way only Tony Stark even managed, asking Midtown questions about their day and making jokes along the way. 

It then was time for the students to ask questions. Some covered the basics, things that the students had encountered during their day at S.I. and had questions about, field-specific questions that were mostly held short to keep things interesting for all students, questions about confidential tech that Mr. Stark deflected with an ease that could only come from years of practice. It actually took quite a while for the first question to be directed to Peter.

“Are the standards that interns are held to much higher here than in other places?”

Tony looked expectantly at Peter. “Let’s ask our intern that, shall we?”

Peter swallowed hard. “Uh… Well, you definitely have to try you best to get in here and you have to keep achieving high at school as well as contribute to the research, but at the same time, the company and the people in it make it kind of easy. I mean, I can’t speak from experience as this is my first internship, but what I hear from some of the others is that in other internships people go out for drinks to have fun. Here we often hold Pizza Project evenings, where we order a lot of pizza’s and do some tinkering together. Or Brainstorm and Burgers. And the stuff we work on is so interesting that you’ve neared the end of the project before you know it. So, I guess the standards are indeed higher, but it feels pretty easy to reach.”

Mr. Stark smiled proudly when he was done, before continuing with the next questions. More and more questions were aimed at Peter and the teen felt more and more comfortable answering them. Some questions were somewhat tricky, scared of saying something he shouldn’t as Peter was, but with some subtle cues from Mr. Stark and some not so subtle interruptions or deflective mechanisms, mentor and prodigy got through it fairly easily. Peter even started to enjoy it.

Franklin was the first to ask about his involvement with the Avengers and Peter looked questioningly to Mr. Stark for that. The billionaire immediately took over. “I’ll take that one, before Mr. Parker accidentally shares someone’s secret identity again.”

Peter feigned to be hurt about the mention of how princess Shuri of Wakanda found out about his alter-ego. “That was one time and you tricked me! You’re at least as much accountable for that as I am!”

“You keep telling yourself that, kiddo. Anyhow, Peter regularly works with me on the Avengers’ tech and for that he needs to meet with them every now and then, to make sure the tech works well for them and they work well with the tech. And let me tell you, the Black Widow has never been as impressed with my stuff as she has been with some of Peter’s additions and adjustments to her gear. And of course, while he may have turned down the offer to become an Avenger” - still ouch - “Spider-Man and Peter tend to work together a lot to develop updates to the suit.”

That had the students of Midtown in chaos again and this time it took a while for them to quiet down. Mr. Stark turned to Peter and gave him a wink. Peter smiled happily in return. Mr. Stark had been right. This moment was definitely one to enjoy.

—————

The rest of the Q and A had passed quickly and before they knew it, everyone was being led back to the buses. Ned and MJ had waited for Peter near the entrance of the press-room, making them pretty much the last ones to get down the elevator. Ned was practically jumping with excitement, recounting some of the reactions he had already heard about Peter sitting next to and talking with none other than Tony Stark. He also gushed about Flash’s seething face. MJ smirked and only added that she would have enough fuel to draw in her sketchbook for at least two weeks. Ned then filled him in on the robotics task, where everyone had received a faulty robot in order to correct it so it could do its programmed dance without constantly falling over. Ned had of course nailed it, but Flash had somehow managed to break one of the robot’s joints. He had also looked envious when Peter had been led out of the room by Katie and had kept on bugging her where Peter had gone, up until the guide couldn’t hold back a question as to why Flash was so obsessed with Peter.

As they badged out, MJ had to leave her badge behind at the desk. She did so with an uncharacteristically wistful gaze that Peter couldn’t help but notice.

“You know, if you indeed think it’s not that bad, maybe you can come with us some time.” 

The look she threw him first made him believe she would turn his offer down snarkily, but then her face softened. “I think I’d like to take you up on that offer someday.”

As they entered the bus, everyone looked up in awe. Some told him he could sit next to them, but they kept walking until there were two empty two-seaters next to one another. Peter sat down next to Ned while MJ took up the seat on the other side of the aisle. The three filled each other in on what the others had missed, in so far as they of course had not yet done that.

Peter was just talking about being back-stage with Mr. Stark and getting all dolled up when they were interrupted by none other than Flash.

“Okay, so… Maybe you indeed intern at Stark Industries and know Spider-Man and all those over-the-top things that you were saying. But don’t think this changes anything. You’re still a loser, Penis.”

They looked at him walking away again. Ned was the first to speak out. “Huh… I think he’s wrong about that. Everything is different now they know. I mean, look at how the other ones acted when we got on the bus. Everyone wanted you to sit next to them.”

“Don’t worry about them, I’ll help keep them off your backs. Most of what Flash said sounded like someone who’s world is moments away from crumbling down, but I have to agree with Flash on one point,” she said, with somewhat of a teasing smirk. “You still are a loser.”

Peter smiled and looked at his two best friends, who had believed him all along and would be by his side no matter what. Yeah, things would surely change, but Peter finally believed that they might indeed change for the better.

—————

_“Rise and shine, Midtown Science and Technology. I’m Betty Brant.”_   
_“And I’m Jason Ionello.”_   
_“Today we have a special guest. Please welcome our one and only Stark Industries intern and local celebrity, Peter Parker! Peter, thank you for being here. Can you please tell us what it’s like to be the personal intern of Tony Stark?”_   
_“Uh… It’s uh… Lots of fun actually. I mean, not that we only make fun and don’t work or anything, but uh… Yeah, working at Stark Industries is just amazing and-”_   
_“Peter, can you get me an autograph from Tony, please?”_   
_“Jason, what did we discuss about harassing our guests!?”_   
_“Sorry Betty.”_   
_“I’m sorry about that, Peter, please continue.”_   
_“Uh, sure. So we get to work on some of the new inventions, they tend to check out some of our ideas and they even let us interns tinker around with some of the not-too-new equipment-”_   
_“Yes, yes, very high-tech. Surprising. But seriously Peter, how about that autograph?”_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> If you've noticed any mistakes (typos, grammar issues, continuity flaws) and feel like pointing it out, please do so! Other comments (and kudos) are of course highly appreciated as well <3
> 
> \- Sharonneke95


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